Scribd
Upload
90 views2 pages

Our Brain That Speech and Language Originate

Babies begin learning language in the womb by hearing their mother's voice and the melodic patterns of speech. Newborns can already distinguish the crying patterns of their native language. During the last few months in the womb, babies' hearing develops and they can hear speaking from outside, which is the first step of language learning by recognizing the melody. After birth, babies continue developing language skills like word meanings and sentence formation over the next few months and years.

Uploaded by

Jenipher Abad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
90 views2 pages

Our Brain That Speech and Language Originate

Babies begin learning language in the womb by hearing their mother's voice and the melodic patterns of speech. Newborns can already distinguish the crying patterns of their native language. During the last few months in the womb, babies' hearing develops and they can hear speaking from outside, which is the first step of language learning by recognizing the melody. After birth, babies continue developing language skills like word meanings and sentence formation over the next few months and years.

Uploaded by

Jenipher Abad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

it is interesting to think that a baby has already taken the first steps in terms of language development

even before birth

But babies are actually born knowing the sound and melody of their mother tongue – and they can
already “speak” by following the melodic pattern of the language. Of course, this “speaking” does not
involve words, and the sound made by newborn babies is often that of crying. But this crying follows a
certain melody. You might think that all babies sound similar when they cry, but when a group of
German and French scientists investigated the crying sounds of German and French newborn babies [2],
they actually discovered that they were different!

about 3 months before birth, while still in their mother’s womb, babies start to hear. At that time, their
ears are developed enough and start working. Usually, it will mostly be the mother’s voice that reaches
the baby’s ears inside the womb, but other loud sounds or voices as well. Consequently, every day of
the last few months before birth, the baby can hear people speaking – this is the first step in language
learning! This first step, in other words, is to learn the melody of the language. Later, during the next
few months and years after birth, other features of language are added, like the meaning of words or
the formation of full sentences.

every day of the last few months before birth, the baby can hear people speaking – this is the first step
in language learning! This first step, in other words, is to learn the melody of the language. Later, during
the next few months and years after birth, other features of language are added, like the meaning of
words or the formation of full sentences.

As we have seen, the development of the baby and the baby’s organs provides important preconditions
for speech and language.

language. This can be the development of the hearing system, which allows the baby to hear the sound
of language from the womb. But the simultaneous development of the brain is just as important,
because it is our brain that provides us with the ability to learn and to develop new skills. And it is from
our brain that speech and language originate

Is it that the network is there from a very early age on, and that the development of language is
dependent on learning based on the input from the environment? Or is this network something that
develops over time and provides a growing precondition that enables more and more possible language
functions?
hese questions can be answered by investigating the nerve fiber connections in the brain. The nerve
fibers are a crucial part of the brain and form the language network.

Now, using this technique, a comparison between newborn infants and older children (for example 7-
year-olds who are already going to school) would show if their brain networks are the same or not. If
they are the same, this would mean that there are preconditions for language in the brain from birth
onward. If they are different, this would mean that the brain’s preconditions for certain language
functions probably are not yet fully established at birth, and that these preconditions grow as the babies
get older. The brain networks for newborns and 7-year-olds are depicted in Figure 3.

You might also like